A wide variety of techniques are available to surgeons for securing sutures or cables within a hole opening in a bone. Screws, rivets, and other types of interference fitting anchors are commonly used.
The prior art is replete with bone fasteners that include screw elements having a threaded body. Typically, the cable, or suture, is directly attached to the screw element such as by threading the suture through an internal channel in the body of the screw. When the screw element is driven into the hole opening in the bone during insertion, the cable is twisted as the screw is twisted.
The prior art also describes bone screws in which the suture is not directly attached to the screw element. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,156,616 discloses a cannulated bone screw which retains a knotted suture and which is anchored to the bone. The bone screw is comprised of a body with an external thread and an internal axial passageway through the body. The passageway is larger in diameter at the distal end such that a suture passed through the body and then knotted cannot be removed therefrom. However, when the bone screw is twisted while being driven into the hole opening in the bone, the knot will twist, and the cable will also twist.
In the foregoing circumstances, what is needed is a fastener for securing a cable or suture within a hole opening in a bone such that the cable is isolated from the twisting of the fastener during insertion.